Coherently radiating periodic structures to reduce the number of phase shifters in a 2-D phased array

Abstract

This paper illustrates the application of CORPS (coherently radiating periodic structures) for feeding 2-D phased arrays with a reduced number of phase shifter (PS) devices. Three design configurations using CORPS are proposed for 2-D phased arrays. The design model of phased array for these configurations considers the cophasal excitation required for this structure to set a strategic way for feeding the antenna elements and reducing the number of PS devices. Blocks of 2 × 3 and 4 × 7 CORPS networks depending on the configuration in the 2-D phased array are set strategically in the feeding network to generate the cophasal excitation required in the antenna elements. These design configurations used for feeding the antenna elements in the planar array geometry provide several advantages with respect to others in the scanning capability and the reduction of the number of PS devices of the array system. The full-wave simulation results for the proposed configurations in 2-D phased arrays provide a reduction in the number of PSs of until 69% for a scanning range of ±25° in elevation and ±40° in azimuth. The application of the raised cosine amplitude distribution could generate radiation patterns with a SLL_PEAK ≈ −19 dB and SLL_PEAK ≈ −23 dB for the design proposed configurations in all the scanning range.